How to Determine Your Personal Brand Differentiation

Branding is all about the freedom to differentiate

Several years ago, I delivered a personal branding keynote in Bucharest, Romania. It was a great gig, and I was surprised by how enthused the audience was about brands and branding. The discussion after my presentation went into overtime.

One memorable participant told me, “The reason we’re so excited about brands is that we have choice. Before the wall fell, we didn’t have brands of soap, we had soap. Today, we can choose which soap is right for us. Branding is about a freedom of expression. It’s about making the right choice.”

Choice impacts success

Choice impacts our ability to reach our goals. A hiring manager chooses us over other qualified candidates. A client chooses us to consult on a project. A director in another part of the organization chooses us to take a leadership role in her team. In most instances, decision-makers have a choice. We want them to choose us – yet many of us spend a lot of time trying to fit in. We fail to take advantage of our freedom to be different. The key to successful branding is to stand out.

What makes you stand out?

Let’s face it, there are numerous others with similar qualifications who do what we do. Decision makers have to sort through the myriads who seem to offer the same services. When we focus on what we have in common with them, we become commodities – interchangeable. When we focus on our differentiation, we get people excited about us. But effective personal branding requires authentic differentiation. You can’t manufacture a set of colorful differences based on what seems to generate media attention. Instead, you have to stand out by what makes you YOU.

Understand your differentiation

To get started, here’s a video with an exercise you can use to help you identify your differentiation.

Work your quirks

Once you’re clear about your differentiation, you need to communicate those traits to decision makers so they understand how you will provide value for them. The best way to become known by your differentiation is to integrate it into everything you do and make it visible to those around you. Here’s how:

• Document the things you do frequently in a normal workday, from communications to the execution of projects.
• Think about how you can integrate your differentiation into those tasks.
• Revise your bio and career marketing tools to reflect what makes you stand out.

This approach will help you attract a well-defined target audience of decision makers and influencers who are genuinely excited about you – and the feeling will be mutual.

What makes you stand out?

Learn more about your personal brand. Download my complete list of 50 eye-opening questions to ask yourself when uncovering your brand here.